Office Assistant
Salary

Median pay for Office Assistants in the United States lies in the neighborhood of $11.99 per hour. Including potential for bonuses and profit sharing — peaking near $1K and $4K, respectively — total cash payment to Office Assistants can bottom out near $19K or peak near $37K depending on individual performance. While experience level and the particular employer impact pay for this group, residence is the most influential factor. Slightly less than one-half of professionals in this line of work do not receive benefits; however, slightly more than half report medical coverage and nearly two in five claim dental coverage as well. The vast majority of Office Assistants (89 percent) who participated in the survey are women. Most workers in this position report high levels of job satisfaction. This snapshot results from replies to PayScale's salary survey.

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

Job Description for Office Assistant

An office assistant is responsible for a number of support tasks within the office environment. The assistant will answer the telephone, direct or transfer calls to the appropriate employee, and take messages when necessary. Good phone manners are essential to this job. Time will also be spent putting together records of office activities and ensuring that those records are properly sorted and copied for backup purposes. It is the office assistant's responsibility to complete bills or invoices and mail them to customers and to keep track of contracts and incoming checks. For past due invoices, it may be necessary to call the customer for payment reminders. The job also includes opening incoming mail and sorting it to see that it is delivered to the proper department or employee, responding to customer and affiliate correspondence, and preparing outgoing mail as necessary using a label printer and postage machine. The assistant will maintain files, inventory, mailing, and other database systems to ensure that they are kept up to date. It is expected that the associate will keep track of any office purchases needed to replenish inventory and report such purchases to the office manager, who will supervise the office assistant. Organizational skills are required to keep up with these duties. An applicant must have skills operating office equipment such as copiers, scanners, fax machines, voice mail, and computers. The office assistant should be able to type quickly with a low margin of error, and should be able to communicate clearly and effectively with customers and affiliates.

Common Career Paths for Office Assistant

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Office Assistants' salaries may rise greatly for those who assume a higher-end position such as an Executive Assistant. The average Executive Assistant bring home $45K per year. Career advancement for the typical Office Assistant often leads to becoming an Administrative Assistant or an Office Manager; median salaries in these positions are $5K higher and $12K higher, respectively.

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Popular Employer Salaries for Office Assistant

Salaries are easily beat at Sears Holdings Corporation, where median pay comes to just $17K, the lowest in the field. What's more, with base pay starting at $15K and ending at $23K, range in salary is rather small.

Popular Skills for Office Assistant

This chart shows the most popular skills for this job and what effect each skill has on pay.

Survey takers working as Office Assistants report using a large range of professional skills. Most notably, skills in Office Administration, Scheduling, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable are correlated to pay that is above average. At the other end of the pay range are skills like Filing. Most people familiar with Customer Service also know Filing, Office Administration, and Microsoft Office.

Pay by Experience Level for Office Assistant

Median of all compensation (including tips, bonus, and overtime) by years of experience.

For Office Assistants, level of experience appears to be a somewhat less important part of the salary calculation — more experience does not correlate to noticeably higher pay. Although individuals who have less than five years' experience earn $25K on average, people with five to 10 years benefit from a notably larger average of $28K. After working for 10 to 20 years, Office Assistants make a median salary of $29K. In the end, more experience does seem to mean larger paychecks; seasoned Office Assistants with more than 20 years of experience earn a predictably higher median salary of $30K.

Pay Difference by Location

San Francisco is home to an above-average pay rate for Office Assistants, 34 percent higher than the national average. Office Assistants will also find cushy salaries in New York (+27 percent), Washington (+26 percent), Boston (+17 percent), and Chicago (+13 percent). St. Louis is home to the smallest salaries in the field, lagging the national average by 1 percent.

Office Assistant Reviews

What is it like working as an Office Assistant?

Office Assistant in North Hollywood:

"Loving My Job."

Pros: It is a fun and creative atmosphere, I love the people I work with. It exciting to see all of the commercials we make, and watch the award shows on TV and see the sets we have built. I try to go out of my way to help all the departments in a kind and friendly way.

Cons: The way the owner talks to people sometime, and the fact that I don't feel I'm being paid what I'm worth.

Office Assistant in Santa Barbara:

"Lots of errands and multitasking. Duties change on daily."

Pros: Working at my own pace/supervision and remaining busy.

Cons: Lack of communication with executives.

Office Assistant in Bergenfield:

"Flexible Work Environment."

Pros: Telecommuting company, makes a great impact upon special needs children and their families, passionate and dedicated staff, ability to work from home, and flexible scheduling.

Cons: Lack of communication at times between staff members due to telecommuting corporate culture.

Office Assistant in Anadarko:

Pros: I like the people that I work with. I like the jobs I do. I like doing the budget and the purchasing for the whole department. I like managing the Princess program. I like booking travel for the whole department. I like being able to participate in the monthly cultural events. I like being apart of a growing department.

Cons: The only thing I do not like about my job is the pay that I receive. My job responsibilities have expanded greatly from the time I started. I took over the majority of the prior Cultural Preservation assistant Directors responsibilities.

Office Assistant in Worcester:

"Office Culture."

Pros: I like the clients we work with. I also enjoy answering the phones and filling in for the current receptionist. I get to walk around meet with people and see what people need.

Cons: I hate that I have to do like 50 peoples jobs including my own that I have to stock everything and clean everything and people still complain.